iSound

For close to 50 years now the release of a new Bob Florence recording has been a major cause for celebration in the jazz world and with each album, going all the way back to 1958’s “Name Band 59”, it seems that he has reached an absolute pinnacle in the possibilities of contemporary big band writing. But he has continued to surprise us, year after year, by venturing into unexplored territory and consistently setting new standards in the art of big band jazz. From the first few bars of Bob Florence’s piano introduction on the title track “Eternal Licks and Grooves” it soon becomes obvious that we are headed in yet another new direction. After establishing a driving rhythmic pattern we hear a faintly recognizable melody introduced by the distinctive trombone voice of Charlie Loper and as more and more layers of the ensemble are added it becomes clear that the familiar melody is the primary theme of Count Basie’s “One O’ Clock Jump”. As only Bob Florence can do he takes that cla...